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A review by yazaleea
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo, Leigh Bardugo
3.0
I am a huge fan of the Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom duology. I love the characters, how tightly packed and explosive the intrigue is and just how everything works. I also heavily disliked the original Shadow & Bone trilogy: hated the character "arcs" of Alina and everything that happened just made no sense to me.
So I just decided to ignore the King of Scars duology because I didn't want to be disappointed after reading SoC, knowing how Leigh's Bardugo's writing is a hit or miss for me. Then the Netflix show happened and (despite all the show's flaws...) I fell in love with Nikolai and Zoya again and well, it was hard to stay away from the books any longer.
Anyway: I don't think I liked this book.
I was surprised to find myself get bored during Nina's parts (I LOVE Nina). Whatever was going on on her part just fell flat for me, no convincing risk and conflict, no drive, no real vision of what was happening and where the story was going. The thing with Hanne felt empty to me too, but that might just me still grieving over Helnik. All in all, I didn't like not enjoying the point of view of a character I love.
Then there is the Zoya / Nikolai half: I have no idea what happened, the plot was messy and losing itself, the twists were not that engaging to me. But what was engaging was their romance. It was pretty light in this first volume, and is hinted to be developed further in the second volume. I loved it so much. This is literally why I gave this book 3 stars, only for my ship because I'm a hopeless romance enthusiast.
Nikolai is the golden boy who hides his scars behind charm and wit, and he is lovely. Zoya is dry, confident and powerful, she has unwavering loyalty to those who have earned it and I love her so much, I love how we get to see more of her and how she got where she is. I may love Nikolai, but Zoya stole the whole show for me, she is a lovely character and I recognise in her the character work I enjoyed so much in SoC. I love their dynamics, I love how they go from a king and his general, to something like bantering, loyal friends, to more. We see their relationship evolve, as she is only one who he decides to show his vulnerability to, his demon to, and in turn she starts to confide and give him pieces of her. And yeah, I think they might actually get their spot on the podium of my fave Grishaverse ships with Kanej and Wesper. I'm just weak for the golden boy x grumpy witch trope, of broken souls finding solace, peace and understanding in each other. Plus they're both my type and that's just bonus points.
tl;dr: didn't like the book for the plot and found it pretty boring, but loved it for the zoyalai romance & the few cute genyavid crumbs!
So I just decided to ignore the King of Scars duology because I didn't want to be disappointed after reading SoC, knowing how Leigh's Bardugo's writing is a hit or miss for me. Then the Netflix show happened and (despite all the show's flaws...) I fell in love with Nikolai and Zoya again and well, it was hard to stay away from the books any longer.
Anyway: I don't think I liked this book.
I was surprised to find myself get bored during Nina's parts (I LOVE Nina). Whatever was going on on her part just fell flat for me, no convincing risk and conflict, no drive, no real vision of what was happening and where the story was going. The thing with Hanne felt empty to me too, but that might just me still grieving over Helnik. All in all, I didn't like not enjoying the point of view of a character I love.
Then there is the Zoya / Nikolai half: I have no idea what happened, the plot was messy and losing itself, the twists were not that engaging to me. But what was engaging was their romance. It was pretty light in this first volume, and is hinted to be developed further in the second volume. I loved it so much. This is literally why I gave this book 3 stars, only for my ship because I'm a hopeless romance enthusiast.
“They said she was cruel because she’d been harmed in the past. They claimed she was cold because she just hadn’t met the right fellow to warm her. Anything to soften her edges and sweeten her disposition—and what was the fun in that? Zoya’s company was like strong drink. Bracing— and best to abstain if you couldn’t handle the kick.”
Nikolai is the golden boy who hides his scars behind charm and wit, and he is lovely. Zoya is dry, confident and powerful, she has unwavering loyalty to those who have earned it and I love her so much, I love how we get to see more of her and how she got where she is. I may love Nikolai, but Zoya stole the whole show for me, she is a lovely character and I recognise in her the character work I enjoyed so much in SoC. I love their dynamics, I love how they go from a king and his general, to something like bantering, loyal friends, to more. We see their relationship evolve, as she is only one who he decides to show his vulnerability to, his demon to, and in turn she starts to confide and give him pieces of her. And yeah, I think they might actually get their spot on the podium of my fave Grishaverse ships with Kanej and Wesper. I'm just weak for the golden boy x grumpy witch trope, of broken souls finding solace, peace and understanding in each other. Plus they're both my type and that's just bonus points.
tl;dr: didn't like the book for the plot and found it pretty boring, but loved it for the zoyalai romance & the few cute genyavid crumbs!